Summary: Similarities between the regulation of structure and plasticity of occluding junctions and the synapse suggest a common derivation from an ancestral pleated septate junction. Thus, studies on one type of junction may be relevant to understand another.

SHORT REPORTS

Highlighted Article: This paper reports the first structural analysis of the entire caveolar protein coat isolated intact from mammalian cells, and shows that the coat is composed of two morphologically distinct layers.

Summary: Genetic evidence suggests that necrotic pyknosis is distinct from apoptotic pyknosis because of phosphorylation of BAF, which results in a transient detachment of chromatin from the nuclear envelope.

Summary: The Src kinases Hck, Fgr and Lyn, and the Abl kinase Arg control Leishmania uptake by macrophages and subsequent infection. Hence, kinase inhibitors could potentially be used to treat leishmaniasis.

Highlighted Article: Characterization of the RNA-binding protein Puf1 as an important regulator required for the maintenance of late-stage gametocytes, the sexual form required for transmission to mosquitoes, in the malaria parasite.

Summary: CO modulates astrocytic metabolism and initiates communication pathways in a paracrine manner in order to rescue neurons from cell death, which is dependent on P1 adenosine, P2 ATP and TrkB receptors.

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Our fourth Special Issue will focus on the cell biology of the immune system, guest edited by Ana-Maria Lennon-Duménil. In this Editorial our Editor-in-Chief Michael Way explains why he is looking forward to reading about the special language of immunology.

Pablo Sánchez-Martín and Masaaki Komatsureview the functions of the multifunctional SQSTM1 (p62) protein based on its post-translational modifications, and how its deregulation is involved in multiple human diseases.

Organelles are subjected to mechanical forces within the crowded cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. Qian Feng and Benoît Kornmann discuss the effect of forces on two organelles: the nucleus and the mitochondrion.

The second in our series of cell dynamics meetings now turns to organelles. This May 2019 meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, aims to bring together scientists studying the interface between organelles and the cytoskeleton at different scales and perspectives using a range of model systems. Find out more and apply for your place here.

Do you have a paper with reviews from another journal that you’d like to submit to Journal of Cell Science? We will fast-track your paper and give you an initial decision within a week. Find out more here.